A “Directory Hunt” for me usually involves searching for these types of things in Google:

“submit URL” inurl:”keyword phrase”
“submit URL” intitle:”keyword phrase”
“suggest URL”
“suggest site”
“suggest link”

…and so forth, you get the point. There is an endless combination of ways to find ‘em.

Avoid the paid ones you find for (at least) a couple reasons…

The link value usually isn’t worth what they’re charging for SEO, nor do users search in Directories anymore. You’ll be lucky to get a visitor from any of them. I don’t see it as a scam since most do not promise anything except links, it’s just buying garbage and only the naive would purchase from them.

Next, ATTENTION GETS LINKS more than money… if you’re clever. Spend some time seeking out directories, go ahead and submit to the free ones you find, and dedicate some time to a strategy that will get attention – and get one-way links. If your time is a problem, hiring some professional help is more beneficial than entering your credit card number over and over for “Joe Schmoe’s Directories”.

Reciprocal linking with a directory is entirely useless, and you’re spot on about the ones that request them….the links won’t bring visitors and little or no SEO value, anyway.

Cheers,
~A

Guess I was thinking the same way of choosing directories. I was considering 2 “flags” – reciprocals, and not being indexed (inner pages), because never I had seen our submissions come in search results.